When Beijing was liberated, there were not many remaining poor eunuchs, and most of these people who had been devastated by the old society had no way to survive, and survived their miserable days in the miserable wind and rain. The relevant departments of the Beijing Municipal Government gathered them together and arranged a well-fed life and a quiet and comfortable environment for the elderly.
Eunuchs are a product of feudal society, and the roads they have traveled and what they have seen have been written for them by others throughout history, and little or no self-narrative of them has been passed on to us.
According to Ma Deqing, a eunuch at the end of the Qing Dynasty, "Only the new society allows itself to experience the warmth of the world and feel that people regard themselves as people." "Let these last eunuchs tell us the path they have traveled and leave it to future generations. Let people see how the ruling classes of feudal society are physically and mentally corrupted, and what kind of inhuman life they lead. It is a pity that although the youngest eunuch of the last eunuch is over 63 years old, they have never witnessed the "Emperor Prosperous", and only this Yoshimitsu Katayu remains here.
After practical education, most of these insulted and damaged people were able to tell what they did not want to say in the old society, and did not dare to tell. As far as possible, the transcriber wrote down what they said:
My name is Ma Deqing, and I am from Yaozikou, Nanqing County, Tianjin. My father was a plaster seller, and my mother was the daughter of a poor family. I also have a sister who is still alive and over 70 years old.
When I was a child, I don't remember much. It is enough to describe my home with the phrases "there is no rafter in the house, there is no ridge in the land, and there is no next meal when I eat the last meal". In those years, the poor hated the rich and envied the rich. For example, my father, who was tired of his plaster selling business, scolded the landlord for eating human food and pulling. But he also often wondered what method to use to become a rich man.
I have an aunt who lives in a neighboring village. She has a distant nephew named Li Yuting. Li Yuting's father was also a poor man, but since Li Yuting entered the Qing Palace to become a eunuch, more than ten years later, this family has developed: there are more than two acres of land, and there are several large mules tied to it. My father often mentioned this Li family, envious that people have a way.
Qing County, in the Qing Dynasty, was a place of eunuchs. When the eunuch really "appears", he picks one in a thousand miles, but people always look at the "bright" place! My father was ruthless and decided to let me go Li Yuting's path. The first step on this path is "purification", in foul terms, cutting off things that can bear children. Because the emperor wanted to maintain the "chastity" of his three palaces and six courtyards, only clean men were allowed to serve as servants in the court.
When I was 9 years old, about the thirty-first year of Guangxu, one day, my father coaxed me, pressed me on the bunk, and personally set out to clean me. It really hurt me and scared me. It hurts so much I don't know how many times I've passed out. I never want to tell people about this, I'm not shy, it's too painful. People from the old society have a lot of sad things, but the saddest thing, they always don't want to think about it, think of it, the heart hurts like a needle!
Think about how painful it must have been to press a child who was jumping alive and cut off his vital organs from his body: one vein after another, and the heart was so painful that it almost jumped out of his mouth. From that day on, my entire reproductive organs were separated from me.
After this operation, a tube must be pressed on the urethra, otherwise the granulation will die, the urine will not spill, and a second operation will have to be performed. I later heard from people who understood this Taoist that after cutting off that thing, you can't let the wound scar quickly, and it will take 100 days to let it snuggle up and grow flesh, so you must change the "medicine" frequently. To be honest, where is the medicine, but coated with white wax, sesame oil, peppercorn powder ... of cotton paper. Every time the "medicine" is changed, it hurts people to death.
I remember that at that time, I was lying on the earthen kang all day, and my father only allowed me to face the sky on my back. Sometimes, the backbone seems to be broken, and I want to turn over, but how dare I move; It's just a little owed, and the wound is also distressing! Urinate and urinate like this. Ash is padded under the butt; The dust changes every day, and it is also wet. At that time, I didn't understand why my father rectified me like this, and I didn't get angry and offend the old people! My mother had no say in the family, she hurt me, but she couldn't save me. I think she must have been very sad. Just when I could get up and walk on two legs, she left me forever.
After about 4 months, my wound healed, and my father took me to find friends and relatives, trying to put me in a place for the time being, so that he could find a way to send me to the palace. But I, a crippled child, was ridiculed everywhere by my relatives and friends. They blamed my father, but they didn't sympathize with me. In the end, my sister took me in and my father left. He walked away like a stone sinking into the sea, and we never saw him again, nor did we hear a single word from him. He destroyed me, but he got nothing out of me.
When I was 13 years old, the Li Yuting mentioned earlier sent me to the Qing Palace, which was already the Republic of China at that time. But when the father personally "cleanses" his son, after all, it is rare, and most people send their children to a place dedicated to this kind of business to "purify".
Twenty years ago, Guangxu specialized in this kind of business in Beijing, including "Bi Wu" in the Accounting Department Hutong on Nanchang Street and "Xiaodao Liu" in the brick hutong inside Di'anmen. The heads of these two families were Qing Dynasty seven-rank officials, and they sent 40 eunuchs to the general internal affairs office every quarter according to the four seasons of each year. Procedures such as "cleansing" are all handled by the two of them.
There are several ways for eunuchs to come: poor families, forced by life, hoping to send their children to the palace and get some benefits in the future, this is one; Gangsters abduct other people's children and send them to Bi and Liu, trying to get a sum of money, this is one; Bi and Liu deceived the bitter cold people, saying that when eunuchs had these and those benefits, and advocated that they send their children to the palace, this is a rule; Some people have committed serious crimes and use "purification" to escape "punishment", which is another article. Thousands of lines, in a word, those who are sent to this desperate road of cutting off their children and grandchildren are the children of poor families.
At the beginning of that year, Qingxian, Jinghai, Cangzhou, Changping, Pinggu, Renqiu, Hejian, Nanpi, Zhuo County, Zaoqiang, Jiaohe, Dacheng, Baxian, Wen'an, Qingyun, Dongguang, and Leling in Shandong Province were all places where eunuchs were born. Because in a place, a few eunuchs became rich, and it would have an impact on the poor families. And it became the norm for them to introduce, introduce and advocate each other. This is the same as the women in the old and young counties and some places in Leting who influenced each other and came to Beijing to work as nannies.
In that year, those who wanted to send their children to the palace to become eunuchs first had to go to the Bi family or the Liu family to "hang up the block", that is, sign up. After examination - looking at appearance, speech, cleverness, touching the crotch (touching the genitals through the pants), and only after it is deemed qualified, it is taken in.
The matter of "purification" was arranged by Bi and Liu, who have accumulated many years of experience and have a set of equipment, which is always much smoother than Mr. Ma's father. But the people who were treated also died of pain, because these two did not have any panacea for pain and bleeding. A knife used for surgery is sterilized if it is burned on the fire.
After healing their wounds, before entering the palace, everyone had to prepare a set of boots, hats and robes. This medical treatment fee, together with the expenses of gear, body cleaning, recuperation, diet, medicine, etc., where can the poor family make up for it? If you can't take it out, you have to make a "document loan deed" in advance, and when the child enters the palace, let Bi and Liu deduct from the "monthly points" that the child should receive. The monthly divide is small, the interest is large, if you don't mix well after entering the palace, this debt can't be paid off for more than ten years. In order to "repay" the "love" introduced by Bi and Liu, and hoping that they could say a few good words in front of the chief eunuch, after entering the palace, they would also give gifts to these two families every New Year's holiday, such as rulers (clothing), furs, silver money, and so on. The children bought by Bi and Liu from poor families or swindlers (in those days, society called those who abducted young children "pat flowers") became members of their families. After these children entered the palace, the monthly penny and other inputs all belonged to the two of them.
The children bought by Bi and Liu are beautiful and smart. They were sent to the palace as teenagers to work as "child prisoners" and "child prisoners." These children are generally loved by empresses, concubines, and nobles, and Lilu is similar to that of small and medium-sized eunuchs who are "on errands". Bi and Liu regarded entering the "children's prison" and "children's prison" as a fortune business, and tried to buy children, give them "cleansing", and send them to the palace.
In the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu (1900), the "arrangement" institutions of Bi and Liu were abolished and placed under the management of the Criminal Punishment Department. The Criminal Punishment Department is a department under the General Administration of Internal Affairs, and its original address is in the west of Beikou Road, Beichang Street, Beijing, which is in charge of criminal punishment and other matters that should be administered by the General Internal Affairs Office. When eunuchs break the law, this division will punish them.